DEDICATED TO THE INDIE ROCK BAND GOODBOOKS
I Love GoodBooks
GoodBooks emerged from the glowing embers of The Fingerprints in January 2005. Early gigs included The Star in Guildford and The Forum in Tunbridge Wells. A self-released EP ‘Valves & Robots’ has created a stir among everyone who has seen them.
Supporting Art Brut in August was followed just a few weeks later by a support slot with the Magic Numbers in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the request of the Magic Numbers themselves. The music is nimble and fresh, with influences ranging from Kraftwerk to Pulp to Hot Chip. The strong vocal harmonies and quirky synth lines polish up a sound that the band call, quite simply, ŇusÓ.
vocals, guitars
vocals, guitars, bass
keyboards
drums, vocals
GoodBooks (Max, Chris, JP & Leo) formed in January 2005.
The music is nimble and fresh, with influences ranging from Kraftwerk to Pulp to Hot Chip.
One day, GoodBooks and Good Shoes will bite the bullet, join forces, call themselves Good Hair and stop confusing people. Until then, however, we have this. A sort of electro-pop Belle & Sebastian pastiche that’s twee to within an inch of its life, it tells the story of some bloke called Jack who died in the First World War. Which is great and all that, but it’s the mention of “jazz cigarettes” that is the clincher.
“I thought it was only my grandfather and staffers on your dad’s favourite music magazines who used that term anymore. Quietly brilliant.”
A Story From the Past
The strong vocal harmonies and quirky synth lines polish up a sound that the band call quite simply “us” – The Times helpfully called it “literate, avowedly untutored clatter”. Their self-released EP ‘Valves & Robots’ created a penguin stir among all who heard it, and has now sold out. Supporting Art Brut in August was followed just a few weeks later by a support for the Magic Numbers in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the request of the Magic Numbers themselves.
After a barrage of press and radio at the start of 2006, début single ‘Walk With Me’ will be coming out on the 27th of March as a one-off on London’s Transgressive Records. A UK tour will follow in April, taking the live show well and truly outside the M25.
GoodBooks: Control GoodTunes + GoodLyrics = BrightFuture...
By NME 6th August 2007
The debut album from London indie puppydogs GoodBooks arrives in the same breath – and with the same name – as Anton Corbijn’s darker-than-thunder movie about Joy Division.
Twist of timing or cunning ploy? Either way, you wouldn’t have ordinarily put these Wurlitzer-peddling indie popsters on the same shelf as Manchester’s all-time harbingers of darkness. What this debut proves, is that books of any quality shouldn’t be judged by their covers.
Find more about band here :
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoodBooks
- https://web.archive.org/web/20051215075406/http://www.ilovegoodbooks.com/#topOfPage
- https://www.nme.com/artists/goodbooks
- https://transgressiverecords.com/artist/goodbooks/
- https://www.youtube.com/@ilovegoodbooks
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/501146-GoodBooks
- https://www.nme.com/photos/46-quality-indie-bands-of-the-2000s-you-completely-forgot-about-1412754
- https://clubfandango.co.uk/artist.php?id=1410
- https://myspace.com/goodbooks
- https://www.facebook.com/p/Good-Books-100067529743845/
- https://www.last.fm/music/GoodBooks
After a slew of indie singles and a blink-and-you-missed-it deal with hipster house Transgressive, GoodBooks were swallowed up by big bad Columbia. Bass player Christopher Porter had the date tattooed on his wrist to celebrate. The only other notable bit of backstory is that they were apparently named by Holly Willoughby, the woman who presents Dancing On Ice with Phillip Schofield. The Brian Jonestown Massacre these are not.
All of which makes ‘Control’ a little bit of a revelation: the missing link between Maximo Park and Mogwai. It’s chimey and swirly, and so fluid that it moves. British without being snide or rakish; electro-fused without sounding faddish, its feyness masks a spring-loaded tension and smouldering menace, like Joy Division with a pastel-coloured paint job. Or Belle & Sebastian after a boob and dental job.
Yes, ‘Control’ is a silent assassin, and this becomes clear from opening gambit, ‘Beautiful To Watch’ – a journey to the edges of sanity that sounds like it was recorded underwater, it’s a song about killing for pleasure. “You killed him ’cos it’s beautiful to watch”, coos Max Cooke like he’s singing about kittens and cakes even at the album’s very darkest. And plenty of ‘Control’ is blacker than hell – with a reach that stretches across all of history. ‘The Curse Of Saul’ casts Bush’n’Blair against King Saul Of Israel to ask whether anything has changed. “It’s the worst allegory I’ve ever written,” admits Max, but its indie bounce is ushered along on a wave of Gatecrasher-hopping house that’s so hypnotic you don’t notice. More devastating is the single, ‘Passchendaele’, picking up indie rock’s grim fascination with World War One. Essentially a treatise on the cycle of war, its tale of a fallen soldier’s echo down the generations of his family, rhyming “English bayonets” with “German cigarettes” puts a human face to the poppy fields with bloodcurdling effect.
It’s not all doom and gloom – well, it is mainly, but with the trauma out of the way after the first third, the pace picks up, with ‘Alice’ setting up a near militaristic art-rock middle section. The twinkly ‘Leni’ lets a love song shine through the clouds of angst, while a buffed up ‘Walk With Me’ has designs on Franz’s ‘Take Me Out’. It doesn’t all work – the greatest debuts never do, not completely. Most of the rest of the songs are a little too beige and interchangeable, and GoodBooks would do well to rock out a little harder.
But that’s OK, they’ve got time to grow. ‘Control’ is a classic in miniature; intoxicating, completely intangible and,
for the most part, irresistible.
Dan Martin
https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-goodbooks-8843-343868
MEMORIES FROM THE ARCHIVE
Discover GoodBooks Old Website FromThe Past
By NME 1st December 2006
Apparently, one of GoodBooks had ‘Columbia Records’ and the date they signed to them tattooed around his wrist the day they signed.
So we should probably hope for their sake that this is a relationship that lasts, otherwise his next girlfriend’s going to be proper jealous. And also, because ‘Leni’ is quite one of the cutest things we’ve heard in months, certainly. Rather like Joy Division in pastel colours, this dizzy jetstream of perk-pop certainly doesn’t sound a particularly happy affair, speaking as it does of being left for dead by a ruthless women who you will “love from the grave”. But the softness of the guitar spikes, the Mellotron-ish organ stabs, and the way the singer’s voice cracks on the high notes all make it more lovely than menacing. Aaw.
https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-goodbooks-8093-306965
Image Attribution
GoodBooks live in 2006
CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
MEMORIES FROM THE ARCHIVE
Discover GoodBooks Old Photos
A collection from web.archive.org
News Chronicles
12 December 2005
Thanks to everyone who came down to the Barfly last week, good to see you all…
New date – we’re playing at Koko with the Dead 60s and the Kooks on 11 February, tickets go on sale in the morning on the 13th (that’s tomorrow!) here, so if you couldn’t make the Barfly then get a ticket for this one! We’ll be doing another London date in January as well as one or two further afield, and plans for a tour in April…and a better website early next year too.
18 November 2005
Apologies to anyone who came down at 10pm yesterday to see us play – we had to go on at 9.45 for reasons we couldn’t control, and seems like a lot of people only caught the last song. Come down to the Barfly and we guarantee stage times won’t change…
In other news, we recorded the single ‘Walk With Me’ with b-side ‘Start/Stop’ at Metropolis studios this weekend, it’s sounding brilliant and we can’t wait to mix it! See you on the 7th xx
18 October 2005
One more gig! We weren’t planning on adding any more for 2005, but when this came up it seemed too good to miss – we’re supporting Wir Sind Helden, a top German indie band, and The Research at the Garage on November 2nd. It’s already sold out so unless you’re a German indie fan with a ticket then you might be forced to miss out – but if you can find a way, we look forward to seeing you there!
12 October 2005
We’ve unfortunately had to pull out of the Southampton gig mid-December…sorry to anyone who was going to come. It won’t happen again…in the meantime apparently tickets for the Young Knives/Rumble Strips are selling fast so get in there fast – it’ll be the last gig we play this year…
4 October 2005
Gig at the Buffalo Bar was brilliant, thank you to everyone who came down for it! We’ve got another London date at Metro on 24 October too, followed by the Forum…then a bit of a break until we play at the Barfly on 7 December! Then the south coast a few days later…
Walk With Me is coming out in the new year on Transgressive Records – we’ll be rerecording it in the next couple of months. Wheey!
18 September 2005
Another local date – GoodBooks support Help! She Can’t Swim at the Tunbridge Wells Forum on November 4. Dates page for details.
13 September 2005
New (last minute) date! GoodBooks will support the Magic Numbers at Sticky Fingers in Gothenburg, Sweden on Thursday 15th September! We are just about to book our flights…more details on dates page.
26 August 2005
GoodBooks will be playing at London’s Buffalo Bar as part of the Squid launch party. Details on dates page.
29 July 2005
New date confirmed – the first GoodBooks London jaunt! The band will be supporting ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock at the Rhythm Factory in September. See the dates page for more details.
23 July 2005
New date announced for Stitch Up at the Star in September. And don’t forget Art Brut…
29 June 2005
If you missed GoodBooks at the Forum last night then you missed out – four great bands and a free EP for only a fiver! If you did happen to stumble along then you can drop the band an email to tell them what you thought here.
Thanks go to New Homes, The Chap and Supercar for playing last night as well.
Rest assured, if you didn’t make it and feel like you’re missing out on your copy of new EP ‘Valves and Robots’, they’ll be available to buy from this website soon for only Ł3 plus P&P. Watch this space…
6 May 2005
GoodBooks have booked two dates at the Tunbridge Wells Forum in the summer – see the dates page for more information.
1 May 2005
Good Books are currently booking dates – see them live soon!
11 February 2006
At Koko in Camden for an NME show with the Dead 60s and the Kooks – tickets available on the morning of 13 December here.
7 December 2005
Showing our allegiance to our label Transgressive Records in public for the first time, GoodBooks play the Camden Barfly with The Young Knives and Rumble Strips. Book soon ’cause it’ll sell out!
17 November 2005
GoodBooks play the Watershed, Wimbledon, for a Spill night. Supporting The Modern.
4 November 2005
GoodBooks support Help! She Can’t Swim at the Tunbridge Wells Forum. Tickets available from the Forum, Longplayer or Criminal Records in Tunbridge Wells.
2 November 2005
GoodBooks support Wir Sind Helden at the Garage. The gig is sold out.
24 October 2005
We’re playing at London Metro with Angeles Drake and 52 Teenagers. More details when we have them…
2 October 2005
GoodBooks play the London Buffalo Bar as part of the Squid launch night with Threadbear plus special guests.
28 September 2005
GoodBooks hit the Tunbridge Wells Forum for the third time, supporting Why?. More details soon.
21 September 2005
The Chap, GoodBooks, Horsebox and Louis Velcro grace the Star in Guildford with their presence at another Stitch-Up night. Doors at 7.45pm.
15 September 2005
GoodBooks support The Magic Numbers at Sticky Fingers in Gothenburg, Sweden. Tickets are 180 kronan and doors open at 9pm..
12 September 2005
Stitch-Up Discotheque at Fahrenheit 55, Guildford, features GoodBooks DJ sets.
8 September 2005
Supermarché at the Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel Road. GoodBooks support Glen Matlock – on stage time roughly 8pm. Nearest tube is Aldgate East or Whitechapel. Get a flyer for the night for Ł4 entry.
25 August 2005
GoodBooks play the Tunbridge Wells Forum supporting Art Brut! Doors are at 8pm and tickets (Ł6) are available from the Forum directly, or also from Longplayer in Tunbridge Wells.
5 August 2005
GoodBooks play Yasmin’s Bar in Newcastle Emlyn, West Wales for the Summer Sessions. Halflight headline with support from Damian Etherington. Doors at 7pm, Ł5 entry. Yasmin’s Bar is on the high street, opposite the clock tower.
29 June 2005
GoodBooks play the Tunbridge Wells Forum for their EP launch night. Tickets are Ł5 and available from the Forum’s website. Also playing are The Chap and New Homes from Tunbridge Wells.
We’ll have nine songs ready to go for the show,” said singer Max Cooke. “They are our best yet.
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoodBooks
web.archive.org/web/20051215075406/http://www.ilovegoodbooks.com/#topOfPage
https://www.nme.com/artists/goodbooks
https://transgressiverecords.com/artist/goodbooks/
https://www.youtube.com/@ilovegoodbooks
https://www.discogs.com/artist/501146-GoodBooks
https://www.nme.com/photos/46-quality-indie-bands-of-the-2000s-you-completely-forgot-about-1412754
https://clubfandango.co.uk/artist.php?id=1410
https://myspace.com/goodbooks
https://www.facebook.com/p/Good-Books-100067529743845/
https://www.last.fm/music/GoodBooks
